Everglades Milky Way

[Don Lacy]

I was able to get down to the Everglades last night and practice some Milky Way images it was a good learning experience. A few take aways from the trip are that even in the Glades the light pollution from Miami is still evident, the sound of the Glades at night is deafening and kind of unsettling thinking about cougars when it is pitch dark, the Glades are famous for its mosquitos for a reason, I need a 24mm 1.4 lens, I really need to practice my light painting it is not easy, and I really enjoyed the challenge of capturing nightscapes and cant wait to travel to some true dark areas. to see the night sky in all its glory

Canon 6D, Samyang 14mm f/2.8, f/2.8 at 25s, Manual Mode, No metering just adjusted shutter speed and ISO to get a good Histogram, ISO 6400, Tripod, Light painted the far tress and basic PS work with curves, layers, and mask along with some dodging and burning, mid tone contrast, and something new for me I used high pass sharpening on this image do to the high ISO I found this sharpen the stars without touching the noise in the sky.

[nick clayton]

You have captured the detail of the Milky Way superbly Don. I also like the foreground detail, I think this is because it keeps our feet on the ground whilst appreciating the distance stars.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice one Don, good subtle lighting on the foreground/bottom of frame to anchor the image without stealing the show.
I might be tempted to add a wee bit more midtone contrast in the sky, to add some pop?

PS: what were your settings, and which gear?
PPS: come to Africa and you'll see a night sky of note!

[Don Hamilton Jr.]

Awesome.. congrats buddy!!!

[Don Lacy]

Nice one Don, good subtle lighting on the foreground/bottom of frame to anchor the image without stealing the show.
I might be tempted to add a wee bit more midtone contrast in the sky, to add some pop?

PS: what were your settings, and which gear?

PPS: come to Africa and you'll see a night sky of note!
Sorry about that I added the info to the OP and one day i will be in Africa for both landscapes and animals might not leave:S3:

[Don Hamilton Jr.]

Morkel, you are right about that.. headed to tanzania for migration/river in sept 2016... can't wait... !!

[Michael Hansen]

Looks great. I was just reading about how to do these myself, so your mini howto at the bottom of your post is A+ too. Thanks!



Mike

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Nice shot, Don! This image is of special interest to me as I've received delivery of the same lens just yesterday, bought mainly for astrophotography. I'll be using it on my Nikon D600.

Just curious - how did you go about setting your focus? How close to perfect was your focus before sharpening?

[Don Lacy]

Nice shot, Don! This image is of special interest to me as I've received delivery of the same lens just yesterday, bought mainly for astrophotography. I'll be using it on my Nikon D600.

Just curious - how did you go about setting your focus? How close to perfect was your focus before sharpening?
Hi Tobie, The Samyang 14mm has its quirks but overall I have been happy with it the biggest issue I have with it is the mustache distortion you get with it which limits its use with straight horizons, there is a Adobe lens profile for it but I do not like the quality of the image after the correction since it is a large correction. To focus it I set the hyper focal scale on the lens, for example at 2.8 setting the lens around halfway to the infinity mark will have everything from 7 feet to infinity in focus at f/13 I set it to the 7 ft mark and will have enough DOF to have everything in focus from about a foot to infinity. Using the lens is very old school with the manual aperture and no AF but for landscape work none of that is a real issue since you have time to set up.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Hi Tobie, <snip> Using the lens is very old school with the manual aperture and no AF but for landscape work none of that is a real issue since you have time to set up.

Thanks for the information Don. Fortunately with the extra chip coming with the lens for Nikon, only the focus is manual and it shows an in-focus dot in the viewfinder when focussed (some guys have been complaining that it's not spot-on but so far my testing proves it to be quite accurate). Aperture, shutter speed and ISO's can be set in-camera and it reports correctly in the exif data. Wonder why they have not gone this one step further for Canon? Well, I hope to post one of my own astro-successes with this lens soon! :S3:

I believe there are a few Adobe profiles flying around for the lens - perhaps one should try a few of them and hope to find an acceptable one? I've downloaded the one I'm currently using from svenstork dot com and so far so good. I'd like to not hijack your thread so you're welcome to take it to PM's from here if you have anything more to add...

[Don Lacy]

Thanks for the information Don. Fortunately with the extra chip coming with the lens for Nikon, only the focus is manual and it shows an in-focus dot in the viewfinder when focussed (some guys have been complaining that it's not spot-on but so far my testing proves it to be quite accurate). Aperture, shutter speed and ISO's can be set in-camera and it reports correctly in the exif data. Wonder why they have not gone this one step further for Canon? Well, I hope to post one of my own astro-successes with this lens soon! :S3:

I believe there are a few Adobe profiles flying around for the lens - perhaps one should try a few of them and hope to find an acceptable one? I've downloaded the one I'm currently using from svenstork dot com and so far so good. I'd like to not hijack your thread so you're welcome to take it to PM's from here if you have anything more to add...
Canon uses a fully electronic aperture while Nikon still uses a mechanical aperture so I believe that is why the lens cannot communicate with the camera for Canon. Will look into the other profiles thanks for the info can not wait to see your nights cape images please post them.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Don - Nice job on the Milky Way. The comp works well. Interesting discussion about settings and the lens too.

TFS,
Rachel

[Diane Miller]

Very nice! Wonderful inclusion of the water and trees. Clouds are a great feature!

[Andrew McLachlan]

Very nice Don...I like it a lot and the light painted trees work well too. These are addictive aren't they.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Canon uses a fully electronic aperture while Nikon still uses a mechanical aperture so I believe that is why the lens cannot communicate with the camera for Canon. Will look into the other profiles thanks for the info can not wait to see your nights cape images please post them.

I have not done my first nightscape yet Don, but had my first chance of taking a few landscape shots yesterday morning. See my 'Early morning peace and quiet' post higher up. I must say I was impressed with how easy it was to use the lens in spite of its manual focus requirement and absence of IS. Can't wait to take some more shots with it...

[Don Hamilton Jr.]

Hey Congrats, it's a matter of working this new concept for both of us. Here in florida we are getting past the best viewing of the milky, however can't wait till next year.. thinking arches trip again!! also, i'm considering the zeiss 25mm... Superb glass!!!
Good shooting!!
Don